Chapter 4: Fear (in transition to Chapter:5 Love)

“There are lines of tears on the coral pillow, half of me yearning for my love, half of me hating him.” What do you recall from this old poem by Li Xin, which at first glance sounds like just a love poem? This poem actually reveals the inner pain of the palace women with the unreasonable concubine feudal system in Tang Dynasty in old China. Zen Buddhist monk Shinsuke Hosokawa explained this poem in depth in his book “Zen Wisdom for the Anxious “- ‘Accept hard words, and use them to feed your heart. Own those two emotions and take them to the next step forward. I associate it with the public reaction to the recent public controversy of the Dalai Lama, and with my own feelings.It was a simultaneous feeling of fear and love. So I made a quick change in the planned topic, gathered the members of The Box of Zen together, again, and we discussed our thoughts. What I found was their willingness to overcome fear and transform it into love.From here, we will batten down the hatches to Annie Bien, the next topic of Buddha’s teachings on love.